Powered hand held routers have become a common woodworking tool used for professional cabinetmaker shops and furniture manufacturers as well as in home workshops. The movable powered router is a powerful tool capable of making edges of precise and decorative designs as well as dadoes and grooves.
The powered hand router is, however, difficult to control as any weekend cabinetmaker can attest. Simple box guides or jigs are shown, for example, at page 85 of the March 1978 issue of Popular Science, (and page 150 of the October 1984 issue of Popular Mechanics) but these must be constructed for nearly each separate workpiece and cut desired.
There have been suggested, in the past, custom work tables with guide units for such routers. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,957,507; 3,782,431; 4,291,735; 4,434,824; 3,770,031; 4,215,731 and 4,155,303.
While such devices may serve a limited purpose, there still exists a need for a simple, easily useable, economically manufacturable guide that is versatile and allows the router to be taken to the workpiece and there make cuts and grooves of many different types and outlines.